Beauty, Ugliness and the Free Play of Imagination: An Approach to Kant's Aesthetics

159 Pages·2015·1.34 MB·English

by  Mojca Küplen (auth.)

Studies in German Idealism 17
Mojca Küplen
Beauty,
Ugliness and
the Free Play of
Imagination
An Approach to Kant's Aesthetics
Studies in German Idealism
Volume 17
SeriesEditor
ReinierW.Munk,VUUniversity,Amsterdam,TheNetherlands
AdvisoryEditorialBoard
FrederickBeiser,SyracuseUniversity,U.S.A.
DanielDahlstrom,BostonUniversity,U.S.A.
GeorgediGiovanni,McGillUniversity,Montreal,Canada
PaulGuyer,UniversityofPennsylvania,U.S.A.
DetlevPätzold,UniversityofGroningen,TheNetherlands
AndreaPoma,UniversityofTorino,Italy
Moreinformationaboutthisseriesathttp://www.springer.com/series/6545
Mojca Küplen
Beauty, Ugliness and the
Free Play of Imagination
An Approach to Kant’s Aesthetics
123
MojcaKüplen
ResearchInstituteofPhilosophy
oftheHungarianAcademyofSciences
Budapest,Hungary
ISSN1571-4764
StudiesinGermanIdealism
ISBN978-3-319-19898-9 ISBN978-3-319-19899-6 (eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-19899-6
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2015941513
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Contents
1 Introduction .................................................................. 1
2 JudgmentsofTasteandAnalysisoftheProblemofUgliness
inKant’sAesthetics.......................................................... 9
2.1 AnIntroductiontoKant’sTheoryofJudgmentsofTaste............. 10
2.2 DoesKant’sTheoryofTasteAccountforJudgmentsofUgliness?.. 13
2.3 Setting the Problem: David Shier’s Challenge
andtheArgumentoftheImpossibilityofJudgmentsofUgliness.... 17
2.3.1 UglinessastheNegativeSubjectivePurposiveness........... 18
2.3.2 UglinessastheSubjectiveContrapurposiveness.............. 20
2.3.3 UglinessastheMinimalSubjectivePurposiveness........... 23
2.4 TheFinalAttack:PaulGuyerontheEpistemological
ImpossibilityofUgliness............................................... 25
3 The Concept of Freedomin the Play of Imagination
andUnderstanding .......................................................... 31
3.1 Kant’s View on the Role of the Imagination
andUnderstandinginCognitiveJudgments........................... 33
3.2 ProductiveImaginationandtheRoleofSchemainCognition ....... 37
3.3 TheRoleofImaginationandUnderstanding
inJudgmentsofTaste................................................... 39
3.3.1 PrecognitiveInterpretationoftheConceptofFree
Play:GinsborgandAllison..................................... 42
3.3.2 AnAbstractiveInterpretation .................................. 49
3.3.3 MulticognitiveInterpretation................................... 51
3.3.4 MetacognitiveInterpretation(PaulGuyer).................... 53
3.3.5 SymbolicInterpretation ........................................ 56
3.4 TowardsaPositiveInterpretationoftheNotionofFreePlay......... 59
4 APositiveAccountoftheConceptofFreePlay.......................... 63
4.1 TheConceptionofFreeImaginationinJudgmentsofTaste.......... 65
4.2 DistinctionBetweenaSchemaandaParticularImage ............... 70
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4.3 TheNotionofFree HarmonyandtheIndeterminate
PrincipleofPurposiveness.............................................. 73
4.3.1 Reflective Judgments and the Principle
ofthePurposivenessofNature................................. 76
4.4 ThePrincipleofPurposivenessandJudgmentsofTaste.............. 79
4.5 Aesthetic Representation of Purposiveness
andtheConceptofBeauty.............................................. 83
4.6 TheSolutionofthe‘EverythingIsBeautiful’Problem............... 90
5 TheExplanationofUglinessinKant’sAesthetics........................ 93
5.1 TheSolutiontoProblemswithJudgmentsofUgliness
inKant’sAesthetics..................................................... 94
5.2 TheSublimeandtheUgly.............................................. 97
5.3 TheApplicationoftheConceptofFreeHarmonytoFineArt ....... 107
5.4 TheParadoxofUglinessinArtandNature............................ 112
5.5 AestheticIdeasandCognitiveImportanceofBeautyandUgliness.. 119
6 The Notion of Disgust in Comparison to Ugliness:
AKantianPerspective....................................................... 131
6.1 The Concept of Disgust: An Overview of Kant’s
TreatmentofDisgustinComparisonwithContemporaryStudies ... 131
6.2 TheNatureofVisualDisgustandItsAnti-aestheticEffectinArt.... 135
6.2.1 DisgustforDisgust’sSake ..................................... 140
6.2.2 ThePossibilityofaPositiveAestheticofDisgust ............ 142
6.3 The Phenomenologicaland TheoreticalDistinction
BetweenDisgustandUgliness......................................... 144
Bibliography...................................................................... 147
Abbreviations of Kant’s Works
ReferencestoImmanuelKantaregiveninthetexttothevolumeandpagenumber
ofthestandardGermaneditionofhiscollectedworks:KantsgesammelteSchriften
(KGS). References to the Critique of Pure Reason are to the standard A and B
paginationofthefirstandsecondeditions.Referencesarealsogiven,afteracomma,
to the English translation of Critique of the Power of Judgment, ed. Paul Guyer,
trans. Paul Guyer and Eric Matthews (Cambridge University Press, 2000), which
includesthe“FirstIntroduction”(KGS20).Listedasfollowsaretheoriginalworks
andtranslationsthatIhaveused:
A/B Kritik der reinen Vernunft (KGS 3–4). Critique of Pure Reason, trans.
WernerS.Pluhar.Indianapolis:HackettPublishingCompany,Inc.,1996.
Anthro AnthropologieinpragmatischerHinsicht(KGS7).Anthropologyfrom a
PragmaticPointofView,trans.RobertB.Louden.Cambridge:Cambridge
UniversityPress,2006.
Beob Beobachtungenüber das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen (KGS 2).
Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime, trans.
Paul Guyer. In Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Other
Writings, ed. Patrick Frierson & Paul Guyer. Cambridge: Cambridge
UniversityPress,2011.
BL LogikBlomberg(KGS24).TheBlombergLogic.LecturesonLogic,trans.
MichaelYoung.(TheCambridgeEditionoftheWorksofImmanuelKant.
Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1992),pp.5–246.
FI Erste Einleitungin die Kritik der Urteilskraft (KGS 20).First Introduc-
tiontotheCritiqueofthePowerofJudgment,trans.PaulGuyerandEric
Matthews.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,2000,pp.3–51.
JL Jäsche Logik (KGS 9). The Jäsche Logic, Lectures on Logic, trans.
MichaelYoung.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1992,pp.521–
640.
KU KritikderUrteilskraft(KGS5).CritiqueofthePowerofJudgment,trans.
PaulGuyerandEricMatthews.Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,
2000.
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